An Off Day: The Politicians, Growth of Government, and IRAN?
I’ve been caught up in politics and Iran today, and just finding myself all pissy about everything. I’ve thought about starting another blog that solely focuses on politics because all of those pathetic losers just friggin’ piss me off! What a sham! And then Iran… what the hell?
I have given some thought to my “spiritual” questionings, but just a tad. Despite how it might sound from my entries, I’m not all-consumed by the questions, or my search for the truth. There are days, however, when it’s a bit more intense than others. It’s sort of like the evening news. If there are a lot of crazy things going on around me, then I don’t pay attention to the subtleties I ponder when nothing at all is happening. You know what it’s like on a slow news day. Nothing much to report on, so they come up with some crap about a local vegetable garden, or an orphaned puppy.
I admit, I’ve gotten caught up in politics since the presidential race. I would classify myself as a libertarian (if I must have a label), and I cannot stand what is happening to our country, and so soon! The government is taking over our lives, and nothing, or nobody, is apparently able to stop it. My solace? Maybe it’s not real! Why am I getting so wrapped up in it? What do I expect that I’m going to be able to do about it? Does anything need to be done about it? Sorry, but I’ve gotten pulled into the news stories, and the pull is relentless.
Well, I thought I should write something, as it’s been a couple days. I’m not in a particularly great mood at the moment, so it wouldn’t serve to continue with a diatribe. Maybe I’ll be back to normal tomorrow.
Just read in London Times about Obama’s reaction to Iran protests, encouraging him not to put his backing behind the opposition that feels cheated, but to extol the virtues of democracy as an American beacon, a role it has lately lost in the international community. If America puts it’s official weight behind either candidate, especially the Mahmoud IronMyDinnerJacket’s opposition, the other side can say “see, the Great Satan supports them.” As Obama has said, America can be a handy football. It’s a shame you feel your libertarian values are threatened, as most of the rest of the world is still marveling that a man of mixed race could even be elected in a place where not too long ago his ancestors would have been banned from drinking from a “white” water fountain in some parts of America. I’m a Hoosier bred and born, but have lived in London for 20 years and have the advantage of seeing America through international eyes; it hasn’t been a pretty sight for awhile. Now, it seems more hopeful. See? “I” can get caught up in the many many stories too, nothing really changes, except it all seems like the same song in a different key, the mass of humanity doing their struggling thing, and I feel compassion for the brave and cowardly, sometimes fruitful, sometimes fruitless struggle, as it has “always” been. You are normal, or whatever you care to label it, whatever it is that is thought, felt or done.
Yeah, I hate that the rest of the world feels (or has felt) that way about us. We’re, for the most part anyway, not arrogant and are really nice folks. I suppose you would agree with me on that, coming from Indiana, right? I just loathe government intervention and I think our founders would be about to start another revolution if they were here to see what is happening.
As for a mixed-race man being elected president, I believe we’ve been ready for that for a while now, so I don’t think it’s all that remarkable. There are some on both sides that keep the race thing alive, unfortunately, and I’m not fond of it’s use in politics because of the amount of bloodshed and hate that went into finally getting us to a point where that kind of thing is possible. King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We’ve been there for a while excepting for fringe elements on both ends, which don’t seem to go away. It’s the “character” part that we’re missing, I think, and that goes for just about all of our politicians, who are responsible for how our citizens are portrayed around the world. Really, we’re just a bunch of nice, family-oriented, down-to-earth folks… you know that. Yeah, there are some of us who are real jerks, and I wish there weren’t.
Anyway, my beef is with the unsubstantiated growth of our government, and it’s intrusions into our free-markets, and now healthcare. (Hey, what’s healthcare like there? How does it compare to what you remember of it back in the states in the late ’80s?) The government isn’t made up of humanitarians, eager to serve the masses. They’re all (with no exception) there for their own benefit, and some of them have held political offices for over 50 years! How in touch with their constituents do you really think they are?
Obama seems like a nice enough guy, but what he’s doing, or maybe what somebody else is doing through him, goes 180 degrees against what our government was initially set up to do. Maybe some think that our consitution is ineptly qualified as a document to guide us through these new times. I don’t. I guess we’re getting brownie points around the globe for who we’ve elected, and it doesn’t matter that we may be unsettling our very foundation. Join the club, I guess, huh? This kind of stuff has never worked anywhere in the history of the world, and for some reason we believe it will work this time. We can’t possibly pay for all the spending that has, and continues to occur. It’s absolutely mind boggling! I have two children, and one on the way, who will be strapped with this crap, and I’m just a little pissed about it. How can something like this be allowed to happen? It’s so funny because the title of this year’s budget was “A New Era of Responsibility.” What about leveraging your children’s and grandchildren’s futures with TRILLIONS of dollars in debt, owned mostly by the Chinese, is RESPONSIBLE? Our spending habits (spending money we don’t have) contributed to our current economic situation. Now, our government is doing the exact same thing, but on a much, much grander scale.
Oh jeeze! I could go on and on, obviously. I need to stop, so I apologize for the ranting. So, how do you like England as compared to the great Midwest?
Quite similar. There are characters who are worrywarts here too. And very caught up in the story. Whatever the debt, whatever is needed, is.